Herdsmen Tending Cattle
Aelbert Cuyp·1655/1660
Historical Context
Cuyp's Herdsmen Tending Cattle from 1655-1660, now in the National Gallery of Art, represents his mature pastoral style in its fullest expression — the golden afternoon light, the quietly breathing cattle, the patient herdsmen, all suffused in the warm luminosity that made his work the most influential model for English landscape painters of the eighteenth century. Cuyp's work was essentially unknown outside the Netherlands in his lifetime; his reputation was constructed retrospectively by British collectors who acquired his paintings in enormous quantities after his death, making him one of the most-collected Dutch painters in English country houses. Gainsborough, Constable, and Turner all acknowledged their debt to Cuyp's light and atmospheric achievement.
Technical Analysis
Cuyp's signature golden light is at its most luminous, with warm amber tones suffusing every element. The cattle are rendered with careful naturalistic detail and rich, warm coloring, while the herdsmen are treated with gentle characterization. The atmospheric perspective creates a convincing sense of spacious depth bathed in afternoon light.
Provenance
Possibly Gerard Vandergucht [1696-1776], London, c. 1750; possibly (his sale, London, 1757, no. 66); Jennens,[1] possibly for Henry Penton [d. 1806], London;[2] (his sale, Skinner & Dyke, London, 10 June 1800, no. 49); Sir Henry Paulet St. John-Mildmay, 3rd bt. [1764-1808], Dogmersfield House, Hampshire; by inheritance to his wife, Lady Jane St. John-Mildmay [c. 1765-1857], Dogmersfield House; by inheritance to her grandson, Sir Henry Bouverie Paulet St. John-Mildmay, 5th bt. [1810-1902], Dogmersfield House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Henry Paulet St. John-Mildmay, 6th bt. [1853-1916], Dogmersfield House; (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), from 1902; sold April 1905 to Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 28 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA. [1] The only source to mention Vandergucht (also written van der Gucht) is the Knoedler prospectus for the painting, in NGA curatorial files, which mistakenly lists the Vandergucht sale of 1777 that did not include any paintings by Cuyp. See instead Frank Simpson, “Dutch Paintings in England before 1760,” _The Burlington Magazine_ 95 (January 1953): 41, who lists a "Landscape with Cattle, etc." by Cuyp as being no. 66 in a 1757 Vandergucht sale in London, where it was bought by “Jennens.” The listing appears in one of two manuscript volumes in the Victoria and Albert Museum library, London, that contain transcripts of catalogues of the principal collections of paintings sold in England between 1711 and 1759. Jennens was likely Charles Jennens, whom Simpson describes as having brought together by the mid-eighteenth century the largest collection of Dutch paintings then in England. Without further description or size information in the transcription, however, it is not possible to know whether the painting in question is identical to _Herdsmen Tending Cattle_. [2] The Knoedler prospectus, in NGA curatorial files, says that Penton acquired the painting at the Vandergucht sale. Penton certainly owned the picture by 1760, the date on François Vivares’ reproductive engraving, entitled _The Evening_. It depicts the composition in reverse but, with the exception of a group of two birds, it is otherwise identical. This print is listed in Charles LeBlanc, _Manuel de l’amateur d’estampes_, 4 vols., Paris, 1854: 4:141, no. 20; and Andreas Andresen, _Handbuch für Kupferstichsammler..._, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1873: 2:678, no. 17.
.jpg&width=600)
